


Support Personnel In Psi Corps - Who Are They?

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [140]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, Psi Corps, Telepath culture, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 01:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16545980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: Yet another of canon's big omissions.This is a short essay that explains the basics.





	Support Personnel In Psi Corps - Who Are They?

**Author's Note:**

> The prologue of _Behind the Gloves_ is [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10153487) \- please read!
> 
> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!
> 
> I also have an [ask blog](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/), a [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallasite-writes), and a "P3 life" Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/p3-life) with funny anecdotes. :)

The show focuses on normals and aliens, with a token human telepath here and there, the majority of whom are rogues. (Do the math.)

The books focus on Bester's life, and for good or ill, he mostly ignores the people who keep the Corps running.

We "see" the normal-facing jobs: Psi Cops, bloodhounds, business telepaths, court telepaths, and so forth. We know the Corps also has teachers, and administrators, and prison guards, researchers, and doctors. If we really look closely, we know there are people flying the shuttles, there are people maintaining the shuttles, we know there are people maintaining the buildings...

The Corps actually has a vast infrastructure of jobs and roles that normals don't see. A very large percentage of telepaths actually have these jobs, because if everyone was a business telepath, the Corps would collapse. The Corps is a quasi-state within a state: they have their own schools, prisons, police, medical infrastructure, and so on, in addition to the departments that place people in jobs, approve marriages, test children for telepathy, and on and on and _on_. All these things happen because there are people doing it.

Not everybody wants to be a business telepath. Not everyone wants to live and work among normals - it's safer to live and work among telepaths. Not everyone passes the entrance or exit exams for a certain career. And by law, the Corps has to guarantee every telepath (who isn't in prison) a job. Someone who doesn't cut it in the normal world will be reassigned internally. And someone who doesn't cut it in an internal job will be moved to another job, and another, and another. (Someone else's problem!)

Also, don't assume that these jobs are "low status." A freelance business telepath may be considered a "lower status" job, in some contexts, than an administrative assistant in a Corps office. (Talia's an exception, since she was picked to be the _**sole Corps representative on the station**_ , which is a unique position among all normal-facing jobs. She also had a string of high status jobs before her work on the station, including working for the Political Bureau of EarthGov... a job which isn't explained further, but it has to be high status.)

Most freelance business telepaths probably ended up in that role because they couldn't land, or keep, jobs with large or small companies. It's physically dangerous work - freelance telepaths are most likely to be murdered on the job. An administrative assistant in a Corps office, however, not only has a very safe, stable job, but he or she has tremendous responsibility in keeping that office running smoothly. This is no small matter. He or she may also be exposed to confidential information.

It would also be a mistake to assume all of these support people are "low rated" telepaths. It varies. People get placed in jobs according to 1) their P-rating (which is crucial in some careers), 2) their family connections in the Corps, and 3) their scores on academic tests. There is also some effort to place people where they are best suited for the good of the Corps - someone who was very organized and would be excellent in helping keep the bureaucracy functioning smoothly may be encouraged to take such a job. If you have more connections, you will have more choices, and if you have fewer connections, you will end up where the Corps feels you are best placed for the good of the Corps.

There are also people who work in construction... while some buildings can be contracted out to normal companies to build, telepaths have built their own high-security structures, such as prisons and research facilities. No one else built the Department Sigma base on Mars! (Or the prison that Bester was eventually sent to.)

The books would never show any of this, since they're focused on Bester, and he is focused only on becoming, and being, a Psi Cop. But "the Corps" is a lot more than that, and these are the invisible people whose lives, and livelihoods, crumbled after the Telepath War.

 


End file.
